Unbeaten Rampants defeat Golden Falcons

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on April 12, 2014 11:32 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Baseball is a simple game and Charles B. Aycock head varsity baseball coach Charles Davis knows some days the other team is just better.

Such was the case Friday evening.

East Carolina signee Mason Keen threw a complete-game five-hitter and J.H. Rose handed the Golden Falcons an 11-1 loss in Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference play.

The loss snapped Aycock's five-game win streak.

The state-ranked Rampants touched Golden Falcons ace Bobby Hampton for seven earned runs in four innings -- including home runs by Keen, J.D. Clark and ECU commit Bailey Sugg. Sugg has six homers this season.

Hampton had allowed three earned runs all season.

"Both games against these guys I haven't been able to find my curveball," said Hampton, who took the pitching loss in the previous teams' meeting. "But I'm not making excuses I have other pitches."

Hampton added he hasn't lost confidence that he can pitch and he has to put the defeat aside.

In the third inning, Hampton threw a fastball that was off the plate and Keen hit what looked to be a pop up to center field. The ball got up into the wind and cleared the fence.

"I couldn't tell you what I was doing wrong," Hampton said. "I threw it up there and they were just hitting it. But this will just make us better in the long run."

Aycock hit into inning-ending double plays in each of the first two innings. Logan Runyon scored the Golden Falcons' lone run on a wild pitch by Keen in the seventh inning.

"You get runners on like that just to hit in to a double play and it's just deflating," Davis said.

The Golden Falcons (10-6 overall, 5-4 ECC) visit D.H. Conley, the 2013 state 3-A runner-up, on Tuesday.